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Dural waits all the way until the rope is lowered enough that the tips of his feet can touch the sandy ground, before extricating himself and relaxing. And then he simply breathes. Long, deep breaths, in and out, in and out, as his eyes slowly take in the features of the black-and-white-tinted darkness. "I'm actually here," he whispers, with the hint of a question to the observation as if his mind can't quite believe his circumstances, "I've made it. Pa's not going to believe me, that's for sure. Welp. Time to get to work, before someone pinches me and I wake up in a ditch, or the Finder forbid, an elvish bawdy house." He shivers somewhat at that last part, checking over his weapons and then turning around to check on the second rope that he had purchased. It takes several minutes to retrieve his belongings and supplies and reattach them to his body in the comfortable way that he had otherwise, finally, managed to assemble them. Grumbling is involved.

Once finished, and hefting Findul (his sturdy, otherwise plain and slightly chipped wooden shield aside from the name 'Findul' crudely carved in dwarven runes on the front of it) in front of him to shake the dust off of it, he makes his way carefully over to the hallway exit, peering down its length and sniffing the air while everyone finds their footing down below the well.

Relying mostly on passive perception, unless you feel I need a roll, I'm not looking that hard yet. Also have darkvision, since dwarf.

After touching down upon the sand Salazar adjusts his clothes.
Donning a heavier set robe to compensate for the cool air, his darkvision kicks in, revealing scratchings and markings all along the walls.Let's see here .. A recipe for rosemary chicken .. A last will .. Good lord why can't people be more succinct!

minion, roll 1d20+1 for perception check.
(The group seems to want to move forward, I'm quickly scanning the writing in the hopes of finding something that might contain information about what we're going to run into)

After gleaming what information he can from the scrawlings, he closes rank with the group, making sure to have the dwarf, human and halfling between him and "the front".

The shields on are mostly all broken and cracked, and all of them are old. Various sigils on them denote various noble houses, dwarven clans and the like. The scrawling graffiti that covers the wall is mostly along the lines of "[name] was here" and "See Wendy at the Drunken Clam for a good time". Boasts by brave souls who likely spent the gold to go down the well and went back up soon after. There are some choice bits however...

- "Durnan is a bastard. I swear by Gruumsh that when I get out of here I'll stuff his throat with gold pieces until he chokes. -- Slurg" (written in Orc)
- "Hesod -- Went to check out a strange music only Jayce can hear. Have a few drinks until we get back." (written in Common)
- "It's been two days. Leave a message if you have returned. -- Hesod" (written in Common)
- "It's been two weeks. I can wait no longer. I seek you out myself. None of our 'friends' would come with me. If you are not with me when you read this, then I am dead. Avenge my death on those who abandoned us in our time of need. -- Hesod" (written in Common)
- "Many swords come here. Do not stay." (written in Goblin)
- "Here there lies a secret door, but you will not find it or, you won't be able to open it, and then you'll rot here in this pit. Ha ha." (written in Common on the secret door)
- "Beware the she-wolf and her night hounds. They killed Sarth." (written in Common)
- "You came here unbidden, now you'll die in this midden." (written in Common)
- "Tymora, remember me." (written in Common)
- "Durembar Ironshanks was here and killed more orcs than he could count." (written in Dwarven) "That means eleven." (written in Elven)
- "Beware the eastern passages. The Metal Mage has made them his home, and he is not to be trifled with." (written in Common)
- "Send more children. They are delicious." (crudely written in Common)
- "When you hear screaming, go the other way." (written in Halfling) "Coward!" (written in Halfling in another hand)
- "Sorci Laughmantle died somewhere in that maze. She wears a heart-shaped brass ring. If you find her, say a prayer over her bones. We didn't have time." (written in Gnome)

Dural can see that the hallway to the south continues for 30 feet before turning to the west.

Philo nods at Barran's words. "It's all ink to me down here," he said. "I have torches in my pack, but I'll appreciate your magic light not throwing smoke in my eyes the whole time we're down here." He cast the halfling a grin. "And I imagine you'll appreciate my shield in a fight. I had a halfling in my militia company, years ago now, and he had a knack for darting out from behind me and putting his sword in things. " He looked back to the rest of the party. "Unless you've spotted a clue in these scratchings, Salazar, there doesn't seem to be anywhere to go but forward."

Your passive perception will come into play very much as we progress though the dungeon. I'll use the highest in the party (15) as we go. But if you guys want to search for secret doors or traps or something specific then you'll need to let me know and make the roll.

"Hallway looks empty, so forward's safe enough for now it seems. There anything useful to those scratches that ain't 'Phil was here.'?" With the hallway empty he takes a glance around the room, mostly curious at the shields than anything else.

"I quickly glanced over the more legible writings....
Aside from people requesting last rites for fallen comrades, there's an explicit warning to avoid the eastern passageways.
Something about a metal mage.

How's about we move forward. Considering the amount of adventurers that come through here, I don't think we're going to run into anything horrendous for a fair while."

Salazar ponders the meaning of the term "metal mage".
Mages don't wear armor. A golem with wrist mounted wands, perhaps?

Racking his brain, Salazar remembers hearing about Trobriand, the Metal Mage. The most powerful of Halaster Blackcloak's many apprentices. Specializing in the manipulation of metal and the creation of mechanical constructs. Allegedly, there is a sublevel of Undermountain known as Trobriands Graveyard, where he disposes of his failed creations.

How do you want us to handle rolls? If we think we are making a skill check, should we just roll, or wait for you to ask us for one?

Reaching the sandy floor, Ay blinks a few times, letting his eyes adjust to the faint illumination of the magical sphere. Looking around, he notices the tiefling investigating writing on the wall. He scans it himself.

"There is also a mention of a she-wolf and her hounds. Hopefully someone brought something silver." Scanning further, "Something about Durnan, perhaps he betrayed someone. Hopefully that doesn't mean we've walked to our deaths. And then this one," he says, pointing to the line mixed of dwarven and elvish. "It mentions something about eleven. I can't make out the first part, though, so I'm not sure eleven of what."

Dwarves, tieflings, and elves all get darkvision out to 60 feet. The surface-dwellers among us will have to rely on the Light cantrip, which has a 20-foot range, unless we do something else. Unless I specify otherwise, let's assume the light is a pleasant yellow color (theater of the miiiiind).

"Metal mages and she-wolfs and hounds?" He grunts in derision, "Already m'opinion of the depths of this place is dropping, and I'll have you know it wasn't terribly high to begin with. You want the front, tall one?" He then asks, glancing up at Philo, "Ain't so bad for m'down here, but I'd imagine you're likely to catch more in general."

Salazar keeps his distance from the "front" of the group.
The dwarf and human will, at the very least, provide meaty distractions for any unwanted visitations from the denizens of this .. hole.
He wonders if any of them have an affinity for fire. Musings for later.

"I'll keep to the rear. Dwarf, if you start hitting something I'm going to set it on fire."

I still debate in my mind whether or not a light source nearby spoils darkvision. But that's fine, I'll get over it and get on with the fun. We still need to determine if Philo or Dural is up front though. Its not a big deal now, but being able to see 10' ahead of the party (if Barran is in the middle and Philo is out front) vs 60' with Dural might be important later.

Seeing the others starting to make their way out of the entry room and into the first hallway, Ay follows, staying near the tiefling in the rear. Idly looking around the hallway as the party enter, Ay responds to Salazar, "Don't make the fire too large. Might make it difficult for the dwarf to hit it."

As Bursar pointed out, Ay has Darkvision. With two tanky types up front, Ay will stick a bit closer to the back, perhaps to help Salazar in the event something approaches from the rear. Ay has a 45 ft speed, so he can close the distance from the back to front quickly if needed.

"You take the lead, Dural," said Philo. "You can see better than I can in this gloom." He considered adding and I can see over your head, anyway, but thought better of it, remembering a dwarf he'd known who was less than level-headed about short jokes. "Good thinking, Ay, taking the rear of the column. And my Dwarvish is a little rusty, but I think the other half of that line about "eleven" reads 'Durembar Ironshanks was here and killed more orcs than he can count.'"

I think the final marching order would be Dural, Philo, Barran, Salazar, Ay, correct?

Sounds about right. If the hallway was wide enough for two I was thinking {Dural, Philo}, {Barran}, {Salazar, Ay}. Ay also has Darkvision and a passive perception of 15, so he makes a good character to keep an eye on the back.

From the rear, in the halo of dim light around the magical sphere, Ay nods. Walking along using his staff as a walking stick, Ay periodically checks behind himself, trying to ensure nothing from that "secret door" might sneak up behind them.

"Fair enough," Dural concedes, taking point and trudging down the hallway, "Ah, Ironshanks. I knew one of them. Or well saw him around. Knew his way around a mountain trail, but was deathly afraid of goats. Never really found out why."

Alright. Marching order is so noted. The hallway is indeed wide enough for two. 10' wide and 10' hihg are the standard hallway sizes in Undermountain.

Barran has actually not seen any groups come out of the well since you've been hanging out in the Yawning Portal.

Heading south through the hallway, you find that it does indeed turn to the west heading for another 50 feet before opening into a larger hallway also heading west, running straight as far as you can see. Keeping your eyes and ears open, despite the clanking of Dural's armor, you (Passive Perception > 14 for the win!) can make out raised voices coming from somewhere. Not ahead of you, but somewhere...

Gutteral voices. Harsh. Having an argument about something (or discussing the weather?). Orcs!

Dural slows down, but still edges forward, "Would help to know where they are first. Can't see anything yet, even if they're shouting loud enough to hear them through a thunderstorm." With that, Dural tries to at least narrow down where the argument's coming from through echoes off the underground stone walls and ceilings.

Amon's head snaps to the right, to the northern wall of the passage. Here! Somewhere here...yes! Amon hands begin tracing the walls until he finds a cleverly concealed secret door. There is no latch or locking mechanism. The door seems to work just by pushing on it. It feels very heavy though.

There are a few Orcs you can hear through the door. They seems to be arguing over what to do next. You make out something about a Troll who chased them down and ate some of their compatriots. The remaining few are arguing about what to do next: Try to fight their way out and rejoin their warband. Hide here for another day or so until the Troll goes away. Or to try to make for the surface.

"Y'know, there has to be more than one way in," Barran whispers. "I wouldn't be surprised if these orcs came here looking for adventure, like we did." The halfling backs away from where Amon is tracing his fingers around the edge of the concealed door, his pistol crossbow at the ready. "Finding friends down in the deep is far more rare than finding treasure. Bear in mind, though, that's coming from an avowed coward."

In a hushed tone, Ay relays to his party, "They are saying something about a Troll. Now I am hoping we have silver AND fire."

Listening to Barran, "We may not find many friends down here, but that doesn't mean we won't find any allies. If the orcs are afraid of the troll, perhaps they'd be open to a temporary alliance to fell the creature. I can only imagine if they are trapped this close to us that the troll isn't much further."

"Has anyone here brought fire, besides the torches?"

Sorry, I am making assumptions about my character's knowledge (i.e. silver for werewolf, fire for troll). Is this acceptable? Or should we be rolling knowledge for that?

"A lot to go wrong, and a lot to go right," says Philo, weighing the risks of betrayal by the Orcs against their help against a Troll. If there even is a Troll. "I'm open to the idea, but these are still Orcs. Stay alert, and if they agree to join forces don't let them split us up."

Salazar's mind had been wandering.
It would be a while before the others had decided how they wanted to apprach a foe they do not know the location of.
His focus is immediately brought back to the present:

Dural pats around his belongings and pockets; shoulders, knees, arms, the belt at his waist, a few pockets on the sides of his pack's other pockets before eventually shaking his head. "Nay, just torches. I'd be a bit way of thinking those beasts would do anything other than kill us."

"Though my training is limited, I do have some flame control." Barran raises a suspicious eyebrow in Salazar's direction. "Probably not as much as our inappropriately loud friend, but it might get the job done."

My vote is through the secret door and see what happens. Best case, temporary allies to help dispatch a Troll. Worse case, we fight. Worst case, they help us kill troll and then attack us while we are winded. Should be fun!

Ay moves over to the wall with the secret door. "If they'll help us, it'll make dealing with a troll easier. If not, it'd be better to know that now than when we are stuck between them and a troll. I think we should push this door open and see whether they will be friend or foe." He places his hand on the wall, readying himself to start trying to open it.